Pair indicted in sending of funds to Iran

Updated 1:42 pm, Saturday, March 16, 2013

A federal grand jury has indicted a urologist and a lawyer with ties to San Antonio and McAllen on charges related to health care fraud and violating a U.S. embargo with Iran.

The San Antonio Express-News first reported in December 2010 on Hossein Lahiji and his wife, attorney Najmeh Vahid Lahiji, when they were arrested in San Antonio in a separate case charging they secretly sent more than $1.8 million to Iran over nine years with the help of the founder of an Oregon charity.

That, prosecutors contend, violates the U.S. embargo on the Middle East country. The U.S. has had a trade embargo against Iran since 1995 because it's considered a state sponsor of terrorism.

Lahiji, a naturalized U.S. citizen who runs a urologist practice in McAllen and is an investor in the physician-owned Doctor's Hospital at Renaissance in Edinburg, told the Express-News in 2010 that the feds' allegations mistakenly place them in certain geographic areas when they were elsewhere. The pair moved to Texas from New Jersey.

“There are a lot of inconsistencies (in the charges), and we hope to prove our innocence,” Vahid, who runs her own law practice in San Antonio, also told the newspaper in 2010.

But after further scrutiny of the pair, the U.S. attorney's office in Houston announced Thursday that a grand jury there returned a new indictment charging the pair with health care fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud, and for conspiring to violate Iranian sanctions.

They are scheduled for trial in Houston on March 25. They pleaded not guilty Friday.

The indictment says the couple conspired to defraud multiple health care benefit programs by submitting false and fraudulent claims in connection with the use of unlicensed and unqualified medical personnel and for billing for medical services that weren't provided.

“When you step back and see the issues in this situation, the overwhelming government expense on this case is staggering and perplexing,” said their lawyer, Mike McCrum of San Antonio. “But Mr. and Mrs. Lahiji persevere in their fight for justice.”

The indictment alleges the Lahijis submitted claims for urology services allegedly performed by Dr. Lahiji, when he wasn't in the U.S. at the time.

Instead, medical assistants performed the services without supervision from a doctor as required by Medicare, Medicaid, private health insurance and the state.

Dr. Lahiji also is accused of falsely claiming he had conducted a “consultation” for another doctor, when in reality, he did routine medical services for a patient of his own — a practice known as “upcoding.”

The indictment also alleges the Lahijis conspired to further violate trade sanctions by transferring $1.1 million gained from the fraud to Iran, purportedly for investment in rental properties there.

The Lahijis each face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of the health care charges, and a maximum of 20 years and $1 million fine if convicted of conspiracy to violate Iranian sanctions.

Separately, they also are scheduled for trial in Oregon on June 4 related to the 2010 case there, which alleges the couple received tax exemptions for their donations to the Portland-based charity Child Foundation.

Child Foundation, and its leader, Mehrdad Yasrebi, struck a plea deal with prosecutors in Oregon and admitted he funneled money that was meant for food and other assistance to his cousin and to a bank controlled by the Iranian government.

Working through Iranian corporations and banks in Switzerland and Dubai, the Texas couple and Yasrebi's cousin are alleged to have masked their transfers by using food shipments and other commodities to cover financial donations intended for a sister charity in Iran run by the cousin.

The Oregon indictment charges the Texas couple with conspiring to defraud the government and conspiring to launder money by purporting to transfer charitable donations to Iran while actually keeping control of the money. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison.

Federal authorities in Oregon allege Yasrebi and the Child Foundation transferred $5.4 million between April 2001 and April 2005 to a relative through a bank account in Switzerland.

Some of that money came from Lahiji and Vahid. The money eventually landed in Bank Melli, an arm of the Iranian government, authorities claim.

Prosecutors charge that Yasrebi sought the approval and financial support for the founding of the charity from members of Hezbollah, as well as Iranian diplomats, ayatollahs and other representatives of the Iranian government.

The indictment does not explicitly state any link between the money provided by Vahid and Lahiji and the terror group Hezbollah.

According to Child Foundation, it sponsors children in Iran, Indonesia and Afghanistan “in the form of food, medicine, clothing and educational materials, and in some countries, housing and emergency assistance.”